NIHB is pleased to offer a scholarship opportunity to support dental therapy students for the 2021-2022 academic year. NIHB invites Tribes, Tribal organizations, and health organizations to sponsor a dental therapy student by completing a scholarship application.

Entities sponsoring more than one student should submit one total application.

Three $10,000 scholarships are available to enrolled or accepted dental therapy students to support tuition costs of a dental therapy education program. Support for additional costs related to the student's dental therapy education may be considered. Scholarship applications are reviewed by a committee of public health professionals. Applications are due on June 11, 2021 and recipients will be notified by June 30, 2021. This opportunity is part of NIHB's Tribal Oral Health Initiative.

Eligibility: Tribes, Tribal organizations, and health organizations are eligible to sponsor a student enrolled in a dental therapy education program for the 2021-2022 academic year.

Individual students enrolled in a dental therapy program are strongly encouraged to work with a sponsoring entity to submit an application.

For more information, and to download the scholarship application, click here.

The Native Oral Health Network, a program administered by the Southern Plains Tribal Health Board and the Oklahoma Tribal Epidemiology Center, has released the report “Oral health among Indian Health Service Oklahoma City Area Population: A Review of the Current Data 2020-2021.” The purpose of this report is to provide support to Tribes and Tribal-serving organizations in the Indian Health Service (IHS) Oklahoma City Area (Oklahoma, Kansas, and Texas) by collecting and analyzing data that is most useful for improving oral health. In addition, this report was created with a broader public health audience in mind, specifically those that might not be familiar with the oral health status or challenges experienced in the IHS Oklahoma City Area.

In March 2021, NIHB hosted two webinars focused on infection control for dental practices. The webinars were part of NIHB’s Project Firstline Infection Prevention and Control Learning Community (IPCLC); intended to assist frontline Tribal healthcare workers and infectious control officers in strengthening their knowledge base and improve infection prevention and control practices through interactive trainings and resources to carry out their critical work during the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on feedback from various Tribal organizations, NIHB recognized the widespread interest in training focused on infection control in dental settings.

The first webinar, Infection Control Measures for Dental Practice; presented by Dr. Jessica A. Rickert, DDS, a member of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation and First American Indian female dentist and Dr. LaTonya L. Shelton-Miller, the Dental Director for the Absentee Shawnee Tribal Health System. Dr. Rickert and Dr. Shelton-Miller provided an overview on the best practices for dental settings and strategies to implement infection prevention and control to protect dental staff. The presentations focused on risk recognition, aerosol mitigation, personal protective equipment optimization and moving forward with patient care.

The second webinar, Infection Control Considerations for Dental Clinics Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic, was held in collaboration with the Northwest Tribal Dental Support Center (NTDSC). Dr. Sean Kelly D.D.S., MSHS Clinical Consultant for NTDSC, provided information for dental providers on how to use current guidelines for dental clinics operations developed by the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the Indian Health Service, and the Americans with Disabilities Act. Specifically, how to prioritize patient appointments based on staffing, supply levels, engineering/administrative controls, and how the Covid-19 vaccine impacts decision making for patients.

Tens of millions of Americans aren’t able to access the dental care they need, but one policy solution that’s been shown to help is dental therapy. Dental therapists are licensed providers that work under the supervision of a dentist to provide routine dental care (e.g. exams and fillings).They play a similar to that of physician assistants in medicine and can expand access to dental care. Because of their limited scope, dental therapists can be trained in far less time and at far less cost than a dentist. This allows colleges to build an accessible workforce pathway, creating both good paying jobs and better oral health in communities with a shortage of dental providers. It’s due to all these reasons the National Partnership for Dental Therapy’s list of dental therapy supporters. Over 130 Tribes and health organizations, coming from across the country and the political spectrum are united by their support for this cost-effective, community-driven health care solution.

The Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA) is seeking grant application reviewers with expertise in health workforce development and Tribal health systems. HRSA offers funding to increase access to health services among marginalized communities, including American Indian/Alaska Native Tribes, and to develop a health care workforce able to address current and emerging needs.

To best evaluate the viability of grant applications, HRSA seeks experts from a wide variety of professions, work settings, and cultural backgrounds. Reviewers must be free from conflicts of interest, maintain confidentiality and evaluate each application on its own merit. Reviewer responsibilities include:

To sign up to become a HRSA grant reviewer, click here. Please email Brett Weber at bweber@nihb.org for more information on this opportunity.

Medicare, a federal program benefitting Americans with disabilities and Americans over age 65, does not cover non-medical oral health services, meaning that over 40 million Americans must either secure supplemental coverage for oral health, pay out of pocket, or go without needed oral health care. This includes approximately 650,000 American Indians/Alaska Natives who, without other health coverage, would rely on their Tribe’s health departments and the Indian Health Service (IHS) to provide dental care without reimbursement. S. 97, the Medicare Dental Benefit Act of 2021, would add oral health services to Medicare. This addition would bring in new revenue to Tribal and IHS dental clinics and reduce the number of people without oral health care coverage. The bill is currently being considered by the Senate Finance Committee.

Thirteen states have authorized dental therapy, and in each of these community members, public health advocates, and Tribes have overcome opposition from the professional dental lobby, which has historically tried to stop dental therapy. But in Wisconsin, advocates have turned a new page, as the state’s dental lobby has dropped its opposition and stated its neutrality on pending dental therapy legislation. The Wisconsin Legislature had considered dental therapy during the 2019 session, but the bill did not advance out of committee. This year, advocates in the state--including several Tribal leaders in Oneida Nation, Stockbridge-Munsee Tribe, and Menominee Tribe—are more optimistic that the dental therapy legislation could cross the finish line. Already, the bill has received a unanimous vote from the state senate.

On April 27, 2021, advocates in Oregon got one huge step closer to enacting statewide dental therapy as the state's House of Representatives passed HR 2528!

The legislation was amended before the House voted 37-18 to send the bill to the Senate. While the amendment narrowed the pool of eligible dental therapy licensure applicants based on what program they graduated from, the Senate Health Care Committee will provide advocates with a chance to clarify eligibility. Oregon allowed pilot sites, including two serving primarily Tribal members, to employ dental therapists as part of a pilot project in 2011. That pilot project is currently slated to expire in 2022, so advocates are working to pass a permanent statewide bill this year.

Washington State was an early adopter of dental therapy, enacting a bill allowing Tribes to employ dental therapists in 2017. That state’s bill specified that dental therapists could only work within a Tribal reservation and only on patients who were members of a federally recognized Tribe or eligible to receive benefits from the Indian Health Service. Unfortunately, the regional office of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), which administers the Medicare and Medicaid programs at the national level, ruled that the restrictions in Washington’s law prevented Medicaid reimbursement. Following a lengthy review process, in which a neutral federal hearings officer issued an opinion favoring the Tribes’ position, on the last day of the Trump Administration, CMS headquarters issued a decision that it would not overrule the regional office. In the weeks since, Tribes in Washington, joined by the state’s Attorney General, have filed a petition in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The state joined with Swinomish Indian Tribal Community to write a letter to the new Administration’s CMS leadership, asking for an administrative fix. The National Indian Health Board is currently drafting a letter in support of the Tribal position seeking Medicaid reimbursement for dental therapists in Washington.

When Michigan enacted a statewide dental therapy law in December 2018, few expected a global pandemic would upend the state's ability to implement the law, but that is exactly what happened. The Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA) drafted rules implementing dental therapy in the state and published the draft for public comment but was unable to finalize the rules due to the pandemic.

As of April 26, 2021, that has changed. LARA has promulgated the state's dental therapy rules. Now, with a set process in place, Michigan will soon be able to license dental therapists to practice in underserved communities across the state, including in the 12 federally recognized Tribes in the state.